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19 January 2013: Day of Action against fascism in Greece

Athens: An Anti-fascist city There are international demonstrations in many cities in solidarity with Greek anti-fascists. UK London Saturday 19 January 2013, 12 noon Greek embassy 1A Holland Park Notting Hill London W11 3TP Glasgow: Nae Nazis in Glasg …

We appeal to the anti-fascists who have been alerted by the rise of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn and to those who stand in solidarity with the Greek people. Our call for international solidarity has now grown into an international antifascist movement.

Demos outside greek embassies and conculates are now being organised in London (UK), Dublin and Derry (Ireland), Barcelona and Ossona (Catalunya), Lyon (France), Tampere (Finland), Chicago and New York (USA) and news for initiatives in other countries are streaming in.

We ask for more demos in solidarity with the greek movement, that is preparing for a big show of strength in Syntagma Square on the 19th of January. It is not just an international affair, it is part of a concerted effort to build a movement that will target rising fascism and racism in Europe and in the whole world.

3) to send us statements of support that will be read from the platform the day of the demo and concert in Syntagma.

4) to take photos from your solidarity events and send it to us, in order to publicise the size and breadth of our movement.

In case people are travelling to Athens to join us for the day, we would appreciate if you would contact us. We cannot provide facilitation as we are already over-stretched in activity, but there will be an informal meeting of international guests on Friday night, the day before the demo. And we want the international presence to be as organised as possible at the demo itself.

If you have any more ideas about how to help, feel free to contact us in order to coordinate our activities.

The greek anti-fascist movement is heading for a big confrontation with what seems to be the most dangerous rise of the neo-Nazi far-right in decades. We call on our friends to stand up and be counted on the 19th of January.

On 19th January 2013 a call has been launched for “Athens-an anti-fascist city” with a national demonstration and a concert at Syntagma square against the rise of neo-Nazis of Golden Dawn and racism. We appeal for solidarity action all around Europe. Sign and circulate the following declaration, send delegation to Athens on 19th, organize events outside Greek embassies!

Anti-fascist declaration

Petros Constantinou, national coordinator Movement Against Racism and Fascist Thread (KEERFA) and councilor in Athens city.

This is the english version of the Declaration of artists, academics, etc, calling for the antifascist day of action on 19 of January. People abroad can circulate widely and can also send signatures of solidarity and support .

Against fascism and racism…

Six months after Golden Dawn entered the Parliament, no one can say: I do not know.

The serpent’s egg has hatched. The venom from its

bite is threatening lives: poor people who happened to be born with the “wrong” skin colour and have the misfortune to cross the path of Golden Dawn stormtroopers, immigrants, leftists or anarchists, trade unionists, Roma gypsies, gays, anyone who is “different” from the brownshirts’ tastes.

The rise of the neo-Nazis is frightening. Especially in a period of economic crisis such as today’s. The governments of the last three years that have implemented the politics of the austerity Memorandum have legitimised the Golden Dawn agenda. They brought racism against immigrants, operations to sweep them off the streets, the concentration camps and the walls against migrants, and the Orwellian project “Xenios Zeus”.

To meet the tranches of cash to the bankers, they have stooped to playing dice with the lives of 17 and 18 year old kids. The announcement by the Samaras government of the scrapping of the already inadequate Bill for Citizenship for immigrant children born in Greece is the modern version of the human sacrifice of the Athenian youth to the Minotaur – this time not of Crete but of the Troika and the EU.

In the faces of the children of immigrants who will leave school and become treated as migrants from a motherland they have never known, we cannot but see a portrait of a generation of Greek young people in general, who once again are obliged to take the route from this country to foreign lands.

Against the midnight of Golden Dawn and the politics that feed it, we draw hope and optimism from the shafts of resistance: the anti-fascist demonstrations in the neighbourhoods; the pupils who paraded with anti-Nazi armbands on 28 October; the Pakistani immigrants who weren’t afraid to demonstrate on 24 August in Omonia Square against police and fascist attacks; the artists who continue their work unafraid of the Nazi terrorism.

And even more so, every lonely act of resistance – in a bus, a public space or a park – against the Nazi gloom, is giving us strength for the battle ahead.

19 of January is your chance to cry out!

In the history of fascism, the struggle against it has hung between two moments: the “too early” and the “too late”. For those of us who sign this initiative, it is neither too early nor too late. The time to fight against fascism is now.

Can we concentrate the many scattered acts of resistance in one day of massive action against the fascist threat? We say yes. This is why we begin the movement for 19 January – to unite all the different forces who want to fight fascism.

But, most crucially, to unite all the anti-fascist sensitivities, whatever part of society or whatever starting point they come from, in a massive movement that will push back the neo-Nazi gang of Golden Dawn and finally drive them where they belong – into the sewer of history.

The most logical place to assemble this anti-fascist clarion call is nowhere other than Syntagma Square. This square still echoes with the shouts and slogans of the big strikes of the last three years and still reeks of the tear gas of police repression by a regime that has long lost any democratic legitimacy. We choose this square to organise a massive anti-fascist assembly and concert that will show who is the majority.

People from the cultural scene, the arts and science, have a specific duty to support this initiative. There cannot be true art or science behind closed doors while outside we can hear the boots of those who have burned books and then moved on to human beings.

Through this battle in this epoch of monsters, we will find out from the beginning the true meaning of art and science.

We are optimistic that we will be victorious, if we fight back united – all together.

Walton Pantland

South African trade unionist living in Glasgow. Loves whisky, wine, running and the great outdoors. Walton did an MA in Industrial Relations at Ruskin, Oxford, and is interested in how trade unions use new technology to organise.